New Delhi: Though the Central government has become active in amending the Land Acquisition Act after the farmers protest in Uttar Pradesh, the future of several tracks of land - the process of acquisition for which have been expedited – in Uttar Pradesh hangs in balance.

There is no dearth of farm lands in the state which have not been acquired as yet, but the state government has expedited the process in order to acquire them on the basis of the current Land Acquisition Act.

National Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh Chaudhary specifically raised concerns over the issue during his meeting with Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Thursday.

He highlighted that the Uttar Pradesh government in the name of Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Zone has notified around two lakh hectares of land for acquisition. Though the issue is still pending with respective district administration, the farmers are still skeptical of losing their land.

Keeping the interest of such farmers in mind, it should be made clear that all such lands which have been notified for acquisition would be done as per the amended law.

According to sources, the government under the amended Land Acquisition Act plans is to send notices to all the land owners whose land would be acquired individually. As per practice, a general notice was issued in newspapers about the land acquisition.

Moreover, in the case of land acquisition for private sector firms, the states can get the rights to decide that how much land the state government would acquire on behalf of the firm and how much the companies would be required to do it on its own. Though, it’s probable that the companies would have to acquire at least 70 percent of the required land on their own.

It is pertinent to mention that the draft prepared to amend the Act also contains lacunas. For instance, ‘land acquisition’ should be well defined. What would be the ambit of application of the phrase ‘public interest’? The issue of Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) also lacks in clarity.